The shift in literacy education has reshaped the perspective of writing instruction in its theory and philosophy of the writing center in the US. This study examines how the writing center tutors instruct themselves for the work of writing instruction through mock tutorials. The tutors demonstrate how they make sense of the collaborative process…

Writing centers, an established, U.S.-rooted writing pedagogy, have spread across the globe, serving various populations in different countries. With Chinese universities' exciting endeavors to implement writing centers in their local contexts, little is known as to whether and how the writing center approach serves Chinese EFL students' specific…

To support international students using English as a second language, many universities now provide access to one-to-one writing tutorials with language teaching specialists. Although writing tutorials have become widespread, the current study is one of very few investigations into their interactional unfolding. This study examines advice giving…

Peer tutoring in higher education aims to enhance student learning, and confidence. In writing centres, peer writing tutors use critical questioning to make the tutorial sessions student-focused and productive. The nature of questions influences the outcomes of the tutorials, yet research has not devoted sufficient time to unpacking what form this…

This qualitative study investigates tutor and student interaction in an online multiliteracy center (the Hub) at a major public research university. This study addresses a gap in the current literature on how writing centers transition to multiliteracy centers and prepare their tutors for consulting with students around aspects of design. There is…

A pilot program in a public high school positions experienced student writing center tutors to become WAC liaisons who foster writing across the curriculum by raising questions, identifying needs, and providing support to their teachers with the goal of strengthening writing instruction school-wide. This article discusses the background and…

The legacy and sustainability of a university education requires student independence and ownership of learning. Adopting a student-centred constructivist approach to teaching and learning allows students to develop a web of self-constructed, interconnected understanding, and supports their development into lifelong learners. The efficacy of this…

This paper contains the scripts of five skits illustrating conspicuous errors on the part of writing tutors trying to assist undergraduate writers. Although the dialogue is fictitious and the situations slightly exaggerated, the skits delineate real problems that have been observed by the directors in actual tutoring sessions. The skits are…

Until recently, the conventional wisdom about the conjunction of peer tutoring and writing in the disciplines was that a tutor unfamiliar with subject matter actually operated at an advantage. In spite of some of the theoretical advantages of ignorance, recent research suggests that it is difficult to ask probing questions and make useful…

Discusses concerns surrounding the future of writing centers. Claims that although most institutions have writing centers, they are generally underfunded, the staff is comprised of underpaid student workers, and the centers are not institutionally viable. (NH)

The writing center at a Maryland university prepares third-year students for nonacademic, preprofessional writing by using retired professionals as tutors. These tutors are trained by discussing readings centered around the Aristotelean schema of ethos, logos, and pathos and the more recent conception of writing as a problem-solving process. The…

The importance of writing centers as places where process-centered, student-centered teaching takes place is emphasized in this paper. To illustrate this point, the paper provides profiles of four tutors--two males and two females--and discusses ways to improve tutor-student conferences, including having the tutor focus the conference on the…

Argues that it is possible and desirable for writing tutors, acting out their role in classroom tutoring programs rather than in writing center programs, to play the dual role of teacher and tutor. Maintains that classroom tutoring projects have the potential to help educators practice the art of translating different philosophies, practices, and…

This book presents 53 firsthand experiences of peer writing tutors. Each story explores a particular tutoring issue, from working with a quiet student to tutoring a student with a learning disability. Each tutor writes candidly in an informed and sensitive manner about successes and failures as partners in the collaborative learning process.…

The first step in an effort to expand a writing laboratory program calls for the director and the current staff to investigate the areas in which expansion is desirable and can feasibly occur. This can be done by asking students to identify disciplines in which they would use additional tutorial help, or by addressing the faculty, especially those…